Construction & Plant

In the Flow

Having a good working relationship with original equipment manufacturers (OEM) is good business for both parties, as construction equipment giant Liebherr has discovered.

Having supplied a new 317 excavator to a Taylor Wimpey site in Ferry Road in Edinburgh, the machine was subsequently required to be fitted with a Rhino breaker to remove some underground foundations. This required a flow meter to be fitted for the safe operation of the hammer. Rather than have a test hose made up at the Bathgate factory. Liebherr called in Pirtek Edinburgh to provide the hose to calibrate the hammer.

Liebherr prides itself on only fitting OEM products on their own machines, so was this policy being called into doubt with a Pirtek hose openly being fitted rather than a Liebherr one? It all turned out to be a matter of speed. Pirtek would get the customer operational in minutes, whilst a new OEM hose was being sourced for delivery later in the day. But the Pirtek hose wasn’t wasted. “We'll take this back to Bathgate and use it in the hammer test rig,” said the Liebherr engineer. “We wouldn't think of throwing a Pirtek hose away.”